hmm, that doesn't seem to have fixed it. I was hoping it would, but it didn't.

how do I manually check to see if the help folder is there, or in another location? what location should it be in? I have DW installed on my second hard drive, so I'm wondering if the help content had a default install location on the main c drive.

I've received that error before, and although the error message is completely wrong, the cause was that I was not connected to the Internet.

When you press F1 (or go to Help > Dreamweaver Help), Dreamweaver tries to connect to the product documentation online; if it can connect to it, it opens your browser to the main topics page. If it can't connect, then it tries to open the local PDF file of the documentation instead.

I got this error because I did not yet have the local PDF file, which may be the cause for you as well.

If so, do you have the "Display Local Help content only" setting set to Yes or No?

If set to Yes, change it to No and then click Done. Then see if that helps.

If it's already on No, then toggle it back and forth. (Change it to Yes, click Done, then open it back up and switch to No again, click Done.) Then test.

Also, on that General Settings tab of Adobe Help Manager, do you have a "Download" button?

If so, click it and click Done to close it. Check back in a few minutes to make sure it finished downloading (when it's finished, the Download button will no longer appear). After it's completed, restart Dreamweaver and try again.

that seems to fix it not being able to launch, but when I click on a help button, it doesn't open the relevent help section, it just opens the pdf as a whole. is this how it's meant to be? I would have thought it would have functioned as the online version does, by going to the specific area that help is needed with.